


Kiss The Girl

by orphan_account



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-25 22:59:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10774263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The human world has always been forbidden. Tuuri was never afraid to cross the line between worlds, only hesitant to risk invoking her brother's wrath and ruin her chances forever. But maybe there are some things that are worth the risk, and all it takes to cross that line is a little push.**Unlikely to continue because the irony is a little too much**





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As some of you may know, there's been a bit of a mermaid AU craze going around Tumblr lately. It's branched off int a couple variations, but I'm (mostly) sticking to Elleth and Kiraly's original post. I'm not going to follow the exact plot of TLM, though, don't worry :)

One more line, a couple scratches here and there and...no, that wasn't quite right. Onni squinted at the design in the sand, absentmindedly tracing it with his tail. He had been testing a new style of protective magic after a recent encounter with another shoal from the northwest. Though he was highly skilled in his craft, these runes and drawings were unfamiliar to him. He swam closer, examining the attempted drawing with intense scrutiny. There was no room for mistakes.    
  
"Scout's back." A voice from somewhere else in the cave interrupted his pondering. As if on cue, Lalli emerged through a slight crack in the wall. A few whispered words and the crack was gone. The last thing they all needed was to be found.    
  
Lalli freed a snagged fin and dusted off silver-blue scales as he straightened himself out. "No sign of any boats. 'S darker than usual up by the surface. Might be a storm soon. Good hunting conditions in all directions, except for the east. That part's weird."    
  
"Good. And Tuuri?" Lalli just shrugged. Well, if Lalli didn’t know where she was, no one would. Onni sighed and tried not to worry about her. She would be fine, even if he had to be the one to make sure of it.

~

Deep in the trench, where caves collided and shoals shared the same space, a little grotto lay hidden in plain sight. It was almost funny, Tuuri thought, how so many merfolk used magic to hide spaces like this when a few rocks and a scrap of a sail would do just as well. Clearly it was enough for Emil, so why couldn't it be enough for her? In fact, it was more than enough—no one else had so much  _ stuff _ , especially someone with no magic to show for it.   
  
"Emil?" Tuuri called out. Her voice echoed up and up the cavern, all the way to the top. No answer. "Eeeeeemiiiiiil!" Tuuri sighed and propelled herself to the surface. There he was, sunning himself despite the cloudy weather and fussing with an unfamiliar object.    
  
Oh, this was perfect. Slowly, she snuck her head above the surface, careful not to make a sound. "HA! There you are!" she finally shouted, startling Emil off his rock and sending him splashing down sideways. Tuuri dipped back under as Emil swam down the cave to retrieve the strange object he had dropped. She giggled, releasing the air from her nose and mouth in tiny bubbles. He was so fun to tease, she thought as she followed him down.    
  
Lining the walls of Emil's cave were trinkets of all shapes and sizes, collected from humans over the years. He was free to roam around the open ocean and find things on his own time, since he had no shoal of his own. (No overprotective siblings, either, Tuuri added as a bitter afterthought.) She passed row after row of sparkling, strange objects before settling down with Emil on a pile of leather-bound books; they were the same ones she had once used to learn his strange language. They leaned into each other and exchanged a traditional greeting, fluttering their ear fins together. "Yes, yes, hi," Emil muttered, still sounding a bit exasperated after having been startled before. Tuuri noticed that the object from before was sitting on a large book behind him, alongside a mirror.   
  
"What's that?" Tuuri asked, pointing to the thing.    
  
"Oh, this?" He picked it up. "This is called a  _ kvinnaböske _ ."    
  
Tuuri took it, examining it as she turned it over in her hand. "What's it do?"   
  
"Well," Emil began, and his face took on a new expression of confidence, "let me put it this way. Ever wonder how I keep my hair like this?" He fluffed it for emphasis, and even in the depths of the cavern on a cloudy day it shone like gold. Tuuri had, in fact, wondered how he did that, but she wasn't about to admit it to his face. "Um. Not really. What's your point?"    
  
"Let me show you." Then, taking the thing back with one hand and picking up the mirror with the other, he raised the small stick to his head. Tuuri winced—those spikes on the end looked sharp—but instead of stabbing himself, Emil simply ran the points cleanly through his hair with ridiculous care. He repeated this several times until every strand was in place. Once finished, he put down the mirror, puffed out his chest, and looked up to meet Tuuri's awed expression.   
  
Before Tuuri could say anything, though, a loud, low rumble shook the walls and charged the water with magic energy.  _ Onni _ . "I have to go," Tuuri said, and she pried open the entrance and darted away toward home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cookies for anyone who gets the Emil reference :3


	2. Chapter 2

Getting Onni in a better mood took days. Getting him to let Tuuri leave the network of caves where they lived took even longer. But after a week and a half of constant pestering, insults of varying degree, interrupted spells, and threats of blackmail, Onni finally cracked. 

“...But you must go with Lalli, and stay in his sight. And under no circumstances will you go near that boy or his silly human things. I don’t want you near him until you get their ideas out of your head, understand?”

“Understand.”

~

After being holed up in a cave for a week, the world looked almost brand new. The sun had come back out, for one, and it shone low and lazy into the water, its rays reaching deep down to cast light and warmth onto the ocean floor. Fish of all sizes fluttered by, entire schools parting as the two swam through. They were smart; Lalli was armed. He was also completely silent, both in his movements and in speech. It made Tuuri uneasy.

“Sooo, what exactly do you do out here all the time?” Tuuri asked, breaking the silence. 

“I scout.”

“Well, obviously.” Tuuri rolled her eyes. “I mean, what’s it like? What do you look for? Is it always this beautiful?”

Lalli gave her a look like he didn’t understand, or like he just didn’t want to answer. Fair enough. She dropped the conversation and decided to give him some space. 

Lalli darted forth. His slight figure and streamlined, whip-thin tail made him a fast swimmer, faster than Tuuri would ever be. She was relieved, then, at resuming her normal pace. Keep up with him any longer and she would pass out and die. Now that she didn’t have to focus on her pace as much, she could look around. Better to savor the time she had out in the open. She turned over, allowing herself to bask in the late afternoon sunlight. It danced over her and out into the distance, as far as the eye could see, save for the far-off shadow of a boat, looming ever closer—

A boat. Oh, dear. 

Tuuri knew what boats did. She had heard countless reports over her lifetime of boats mowing down reefs and dumping things into the ocean. Of boats that fired huge, heavy projectiles, destroying each other and everything below. Of boats that cast nets lined with barbs and plucked merfolk out of the water, where they were either killed on the spot or made to dry up and suffocate on land. Tuuri didn’t know which kind of boat this was—they all looked the same from below—but she valued her life, and so she sprinted ahead to catch up with Lalli.

“Danger...up...boat…” That was all Tuuri could manage by the time she caught up. Her heart was racing, gills flaring. She must have looked a mess. Lalli, on the other hand, looked unperturbed. He took her hand, slowed to check if she was all right, and then calmly started chanting in a steady rhythm. 

The boat only came closer. Tuuri didn’t know what Lalli was doing, exactly, but as the glow in his eyes grew brighter, she felt something change. “For protection.” Lalli said after he finished. His whole body looked translucent, and when Tuuri caught a glimpse of her own tail, she noticed she was as well. “They can’t see us. I can hold it for a while, but we should be on our way.”

“Wait,” Tuuri said. “I have an idea.”

Lalli’s face scrunched up. “You’re making that voice.”

“What voice?”

“The one you use when you’re about to do something bad. Come on, let’s  _ go _ .”

“Okay!” Before Lalli could even begin to turn toward home, Tuuri was dashing off toward the surface. He had no choice but to follow.

~

“Tuuri,” Lalli hissed, “what do you think you’re  _ doing _ ?”

Tuuri blinked, feigning innocence. “You said let’s go, so I went.” 

“Not this way! This isn’t the time for your weird jokes!”

“I’m sorry,” Tuuri drawled, “I just never go out this far, however could I  _ possibly  _ know which way to go?” 

“Onni will kill us.”

Tuuri’s sweet falsetto suddenly dropped to her normal pitch. “Onni doesn’t have to know.” And then, in a tone that was downright menacing, “right, Lalli?”

And with that, her head breached the surface.

~

For all she had been told, Tuuri had expected to see a gruesome, man-made monster, looming out of the water with humans on its back, ready to strike at any moment. But when she saw the boat up close, it looked...peaceful. Rowdy, yes, but peaceful. Not a net in sight.

The humans aboard were singing a kind of song, a hearty, jolly tune, but Tuuri couldn’t make out the words. Even if she could, it was unlikely she would understand anyway—humans were wildly different from each other, she had heard, and had thousands of different languages. It could be any one of them. Music like nothing Tuuri had ever heard before accompanied them, fast-paced and lively. Their movements were strange, too, jittering about, and it took Tuuri a moment to realize that they were moving to the music. It was bizarre as it was beautiful. Tuuri couldn’t look away. There was just so much happening, she couldn’t focus! It was almost overwhelming, and she was about to come back down to recover, until one human in particular caught her eye.

They towered over most of the people on board, like a beacon commanding attention from everyone around them. Including Tuuri. Despite Lalli and her own conscience pulling her back, she swam just a little closer. From her new vantage point, Tuuri could see that the figure was a woman, with bright red hair that rivaled the setting sun and a bold disposition to match. She was thin, like Lalli, but strong, and much less graceful. Tuuri watched her stumble and move about for what felt like hours. When the sun had set all the way, Lalli pulled Tuuri back under, declaring that he couldn’t hold the spell any longer and they needed to turn back, for real this time. Briefly, Tuuri panicked. She wondered if the human had seen her. 

She wondered if she cared.


	3. Chapter 3

Sneaking around, Tuuri figured out, was so much easier with Lalli on her side. He knew all the shortcuts and secrets, both inside and out of the caves, from experience scouting. His magic abilities were also a definite plus—had it not been for that, Tuuri never would have seen what she had that night. She made a mental note to thank him later.

As it was, though, she could barely contain herself. Oh, what a night it was! How her fins had fluttered at the sight of that gangly, gorgeous figure in the sun, so carefree and lively and bright! She was almost waxing poetic at the thought of her, her brilliance illuminating the dark, deep void in—no, that was ridiculous. Tuuri was a grown woman, not the same silly child who used to think up grandiose sentiments about the unknown. She didn’t even know this person; what if she was rude or cruel, or worse, as dangerous as Onni always said? She hadn’t seemed like any of those things, but what if Tuuri was wrong? She had only seen her from a distance, and first impressions could lie. There was so much to consider: this...feeling she had, and what she had always been told, and which one was right. Whatever she was going to do, she wasn’t going to do it alone.

~

“So you used to live around humans, right?” Tuuri blurted out, not even pausing to greet Emil properly. She was on a mission.

“Yes, in a lake pretty far inland, I...thought you knew this? Why do you ask?”

Tuuri propped herself up next to him. They were up by the rocks this time; to make up for lost sunning time before, Emil had said. “Just curious,” Tuuri said, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible, “about some things. Like are they always dangerous, do they have a weakness, is there any way to get close to one…” She cleared her throat. “Um. In theory.”

“Well, _in theory_ , you would have to be careful around them. Not get too close, or else you might end up scarred and traumatized...at best. Like my aunt is. But their stuff isn’t so hard to get to, they leave it around and won’t even look for it once it’s underwater and—”

“So you’re saying there’s really no way to get close to one? You know...personally?” Tuuri felt herself blush a little at that last part, voice trailing, fins curling up.

Now Emil looked almost hungrily curious. “Alright, give it up. Who is it?”

“Nobody! I mean. Somebody. On a boat. I saw her a couple nights ago, and I haven’t been able to get my mind off of her since, and I think I might, uh.” It was so hard to admit it to anyone but herself. “Like her? But I don’t know. I just...thought you might be able to help.”

Emil shook his head ever so slightly, sending glinting a little despite the mood. “I can’t say I am. Even if she’s safe, how would you even interact?”

Tuuri all but drooped. “You’re probably right. She’d be on land most of the time, and of course that wouldn’t work,” she gestured vaguely to her gills and down her tail, “for me.”

“Yeah. Unless you magically became human or something.”

There was more than a hint of sarcasm in Emil’s voice. He was the type to scoff at magic, even with proof right under his tail. Tuuri, however, was not. Though she had no magical ability herself, she was constantly surrounded by it; her brother, cousin, and countless others in her shoal possessed a great deal of power. Whether or not that was something they could do, she didn’t know, and whether she would be able to keep Onni unaware was another matter entirely. But an idea was an idea, and it just might be worth investigating. Reinvigorated by the accidental advice, she hastily bade Emil farewell and hurried back home.

~

“No.”

“But why? You did all those other things for me!”

“There has to be a line!” Lalli fumed, swiping his tail in a line between them for emphasis. “Tuuri, listen. The human world is a mess.”

Tuuri had nothing to say, so she simply floundered there, unwittingly allowing Lalli to continue his tirade. It was uncharacteristic of him to talk this much; he must have been really passionate about this.

“...you know the toll strong magic like that can take, and only someone really good like Onni could do it but he wouldn’t…”

Ah, right. She had known—it was why she had gone to Lalli in the first place—but the reminder didn’t help. She hated to think how he would react, for both his and her own sake. And at the moment, Lalli was acting eerily similar. So in an ironic reversal of the norm, she simply slipped out while he was the one talking. He would calm down on his own. It was good for both of them.

~

The ocean floor seemed darker than usual. Deeper. It couldn’t have really been, but the late night penetrated through even to the depths, and where there was usually a glimmer of light, now there was nothing. But yet again, Tuuri found herself drawn to the surface, with even more reason than before.

The way up was long. Fatigue from the long day and soreness left over from swimming with Lalli should have worn her out, should have pulled her back down. And as the surface grew nearer, it became choppier. Another summer storm. Thick, hard raindrops pelted down so hard Tuuri could feel them even underwater, and when her head breached it was just as soon overtaken by a massive wave.

Perhaps it was a sign. If it was, she chose to ignore it.

Tuuri hoisted herself above the rough surface once more. She could hardly see through the rain, and had to constantly pump her tail against the current just to stay in place. But if she concentrated, she could make out a faint, dark shape on the water. The boat. _Her_ boat. The one that had looked so jubilant and serene a few nights before—now it rocked violently in the waves and wind. It wasn’t going to last much longer. Tuuri thought she could hear screams.

One deafening clap of thunder. One flashing, deadly accurate lightning bolt. That was all it took to rend the boat apart. Tuuri dove back under, just narrowly missing flying shrapnel. Where only rain had been, there were planks, parts, people falling into the relentless ocean. And among the people, the one Tuuri both most and least hoped to see.

Ruins be damned, Tuuri raced toward her. Hooked their arms together so they were face to face; oh, what a beautiful face it was, framed by poison-red hair fanning out like a halo, severe features softened in the low light under the water.

The water. Right, the water would kill her! Stupid! Once again Tuuri shot up to the surface, though this time the dead weight of the human and the long legs bumping into her tail made the process considerably slower. And more painful, Tuuri thought, as she fought raging currents with every movement. It would all be worth it, though, to see this human survive. All they had to do was reach the shore.


End file.
